The Lakewood Boys on the Lazy S by L.P. Wyman
The Lakewood Boys on the Lazy S opens in Maine, where brothers Bob and Jack Lakewood are fishing on a lake when a sudden storm forces them to race their electric-motor boat home. Learning that a young woman, Clara Leeds, is missing in a capsized canoe, they dash back out into the gale; Bob dives and rescues her from drowning. The grateful Leeds family — mother, daughter, and later the lame Mr. Leeds — befriend the modest boys, who shun the fuss made over their heroism. One evening Mr. Leeds tells the brothers of his youth in the Maine woods, an old Indian legend of a lost tribe's hidden gold near Big Machias Lake, his search for the treasure guided by an old Indian who mysteriously vanished, and the bear attack that left him permanently lame. The conversation turns to Texas, where Leeds owns a large cattle ranch called the Lazy S, run by foreman Jeb Stebbins. Charmed by the idea, Bob and Jack win their father's permission to spend the summer there. Arriving in Texas, they are met by the colorful, tale-spinning cowboy Slim Jones, who regales them with tall stories about giant rattlesnakes and outsized pumpkins on the drive to the ranch. There they meet Jeb, his spirited daughter Sue, the Chinese cook Charlie, and the ranch hands, including the bickering but devoted friends Slats Magee and Slim. Bob proves himself by breaking a vicious horse, Satan, given to him as a "joke," and earns the cowboys' respect and the horse's lasting loyalty. The peaceful ranch life is soon overshadowed by news that Red Hains, a notorious and ruthless cattle-rustler, has returned to the region after a long absence, terrorizing ranches near the border. During a mountain excursion to see a rock formation called the Owl's Head, Sue, Bob, and Jack narrowly avoid trouble with a rough band of horsemen and then come face to face with Hains himself. On the way back, Bob impulsively follows the gang to scout their hideout, is captured, and spends a harrowing night as their prisoner, narrowly escaping a lynching threat by hiding in a tree while the outlaws search for him. During his capture he befriends Fred Royce, a young man from a good Boston family who fell into crime after a gambling debt and forged check, and who is wrestled into submission and persuaded by Bob to abandon the gang. Reunited with a rescue party led by Slats, Bob returns to the ranch, where Royce is welcomed and given a chance to reform. Cattle raids continue, and suspicion falls on a new hired hand, Los Varney, an old acquaintance of Jeb's who Bob believes he recognizes as one of Hains' gang from his night in captivity. Sue distrusts Varney from the start. Bob and Jack spy on him at night, catching him exchanging signal flashes with a confederate on the prairie and later trailing him to a secret rendezvous with a bearded outlaw, though they narrowly avoid detection when moonlight breaks through the clouds. Confronted by Jeb, Varney is exposed as a spy and locked up, while the sheriff, "Skeets" Longly, leads a showy but fruitless posse hunt through a mountain pass called The Crotch, doing nothing to disrupt the rustlers' real plans. The crisis comes when Hains and his men ambush Sue, Bob, and Jack near the foothills, seize Sue as a hostage, and send word that she will be released only if Royce is handed over. Royce, unwilling to let Sue suffer for his sake, rides off alone to surrender himself to Hains. Jeb, Bob, Jack, and the ranch hands follow in pursuit, splitting up to search the rugged, trackless hills. Bob and Jack pick up Royce's trail through careful woodcraft, surviving a near-fatal attack by a mountain lion that pins Jack to the ground before Bob drags the beast off by its tail and a well-aimed shot finishes it. Pressing on through the night, the brothers trail Royce and his captor to a well-worn cattle trail leading toward Hains' hidden camp, and as darkness falls they creep close enough to see the rustlers' campfire, poised to attempt Sue's rescue.
By L.P. Wyman · First published 1925 · Genre: Adventure, Western, Young Adult · 14 chapters · 67,188 words
First lines
"That cloud over there's coming this way pretty fast, Bob."
"Does look rather squally for a fact, but I've just got to have it out with that pickerel. The beggar's stole three frogs already and I simply can't let him get away with a thing like that."
What this Textopian page supports
The Lakewood Boys on the Lazy S is listed on Textopian as a novel by L.P. Wyman, dated 1925 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Novel
- Author: L.P. Wyman
- Date: 1925 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Adventure, Western, Young Adult, Action, Frontier Fiction
- Length: 67,188 words
- Structure: 14 chapters, 2,225 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for The Lakewood Boys on the Lazy S by L.P. Wyman
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
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Genres
- Adventure — The narrative is driven by a series of escalating quests and challenges, including following cattle rustlers, rescuing a kidnapped girl, and engaging in wilderness survival and combat sequences throughout.
- Western — Set on a Texas cattle ranch, featuring cowboys, rustlers, frontier justice, ranch operations, and the specific cultural milieu of early 1900s American ranching with authentic regional dialogue and customs.
- Young Adult — Protagonists are teenage boys navigating moral choices, developing competence and courage; the narrative functions as an educational adventure that emphasizes character development and moral lessons for adolescent readers.
- Action — Numerous combat sequences, horse chases, wildlife encounters, and physical confrontations form the primary narrative momentum and are depicted with emphasis on immediate, visceral challenge.
Tags
juvenile fiction · boys' adventure · western fiction · ranch life · outdoor adventure · friendship · courage · horseback riding · cowboys · mystery · action · coming of age
Contents
- The Rescue
- Mr. Leeds Tells a Story
- Slim and Slats
- Bob "Learns how to Ride."
- A Sidewinder
- Bob Captured
- Bob Makes a Convert
- The Raid
- Suspicions
- On Watch
- Skeets Stages a Farce
- The "Tail" of the Mountain Lion
- The Round up
- Conclusion